Fiona McAuslan Consulting

Top tips & insights from speakers at Eastside People’s Festival of Trusteeship 2025 on how to get the most from your board meetings.

Here are some areas that often prove problematic, alongside some suggested Festival of Trusteeship sessions that are packed with tips and insights to shape your board and influence trustee behaviour.

From decision making to dynamics. The traits & habits used by the best charity boards. By Eastside People Consultant Fiona McAuslan.

Fiona McAuslan, Communications Director at Getting on Board, a trustee recruitment and diversity charity, says when care workers become trustees it’s a win-win for the sector and charities simultaneously.

By Fiona McAuslan, communications director at Getting on Board. When it comes to trustee recruitment, many board members will tell you that they don’t have a diversity and inclusion issue. Their problem is that they just can’t find new trustees for

Building resilience for challenging times

Trusteeship can help chemical engineers advance their careers and give to a cause they love, says Fiona McAuslan

The Smallwood Trust has increased its endowment drawdown while still maintaining financial prudence, and calls on other trusts and foundations to do the same, as Fiona McAuslan reports...

Identifying and changing board culture can feel like a nebulous task, but it can make or break a charity, says Fiona McAuslan...

Here's six easy but robust, inclusive and practical ways to set your new charity board trustees up for success.

Student Chinelo Nnadi shares truths she has learned about becoming a charity trustee.

Through trusteeship I’ve also learned how to operate on a strategic board level

Being a trustee involves different skills and challenges from regular volunteering. Here’s how to work out which would suit you best.

CEO Vikki Wilkinson details how step-by-step recruitment process diversified Bexley VSC boardMomentum for change‘It was the Black Lives Matter movement in June 2020 that brought the issue of diversity to the fore for us. I’d been CEO of Bexley Voluntary Service Council for five years. We’d always known that we needed to diversify. The BLM movement made conversations both easier and harder but it did mean that it had become a real live issue. There was momentum, so we took the decision not to po

Lee Reavey, Co-Founder and Trustee of the NCBRS Worldwide shares their journey to open recruitment“My boy was born in 2007 and diagnosed with Nicolaides-Baraitser syndrome. He was the second person ever to be diagnosed and there was very little information available. I remember walking out of Great Ormond Street Hospital, feeling all alone. In 2010 I set up a Facebook group. I was motivated not to let other families go through that and be as isolated. In 2020 our small group officially became a

CEO Caroline Taylor explains how Essex Community Foundation transformed their boardCan you tell us about your charity?Essex Community Foundation provides vital funding to local charities and community groups in Essex through donations from individuals, companies, charitable trusts and public agencies. We strive to be an active foundation and have two current initiatives: a Listening Project to help us improve our grantmaking and we have an Essex mental health pot of money to provide support for

Who can be a trustee? Almost anyone can. You don't need any special skills but it helps to have these three important values.

Suneet Sharma is a trustee of It Gets Better UK and former co-Chair of the SEGA LGBTQ+ Employee Network. As a mental health advocate Suneet focuses on eradicating stigma and is an ambassador of video games mental health charity Safe In Our World. He is also a legal executive.My diagnosis of depression colours my approach to thingsMental illness is seen as something that just happens to you and that you don't have agency but being on the board of a mental health charity has helped me change the f

Community Investment Manager Emma Turnbull shares why partnering with Getting on Board is a core part of Allen & Overy employees’ development.I’ve been a trustee for 10 years and I wanted to encourage and inspire others at Allen & Overy. I’m currently a trustee for a legal advice centre. The nature of the law profession is that lawyers can work in a very insular way. I know from experience that being a trustee broadens horizons and allows you to look outwards. Working as trustees outside the

Getting on Board's Festival of Trusteeship 2021 was full of essential wisdom for trustees The Festival of Trusteeship was stuffed with useful tips and a-ha! moments for trustees and aspiring trustees. We've rounded up a few of our favourites to share with you here. 8 ways to correct an imbalance of power on your board of trustees1. Those who are already on boards have more power than those who don’t. So power sharing is bringing people on boards who aren’t currently there. 2. Use your position